A man, his cane, and 26.2 'unreasonable' miles to prove his own doubts wrong: Michael K. McIntyre

PENINSULA, Ohio -- If all went according to plan, Zachary Fenell will have lined up in the predawn darkness this morning at the start of the Towpath Marathon in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Depending on when you are reading this, he may still be on the course. He's planning for eight-and-a-half hours, give or take. It's his first marathon.

It will not begin with a starter's pistol. There will be no jostling throng of competitors. The plan is for just Zach and his friend James Schleicher, who challenged him to make the marathon his goal, to take the first of many steps at 5:30 a.m., hours before anyone else.

They'll walk the course. Zach will rely on his cane for balance.

Fenell, 30, of South Euclid, completed his first half marathon on the Towpath a year ago and began training for the full marathon earlier this year. Besides the cane, the early start, 5:30 a.m., is the only special accommodation for his cerebral palsy.

Take just a second and think about that. He's walking 26.2 miles with a cane and despite his disability. And our excuse for lounging around all day is what, exactly?

Zach acknowledges he won't set any land speed records. He'll likely finish as lonely as he starts, passed by the entire field despite his head start.

"I'm in competition with myself to see if I can improve on myself and not worrying about other people," he said.

His first "fun walk" was August 2014. He finished one mile in 27 minutes. He entered his first 5K a year later and finished north of an hour.

Since then, he keeps setting personal bests in the 5K, shaving more than 10 minutes off his time. He finished the half marathon last October in around four hours, 42 minutes. Schleicher, a fellow Notre Dame College grad and cross country coach at a local high school, immediately pressed him to shoot for a marathon and promised to walk with him to seal the deal. Schleicher's social media enterprise, IBB (IBBJames.com), is sponsoring Fenell.

In Zach's first 5K in August 2015, a race volunteer told him he was "an inspiration." His response: "Inspiration is in the eye of the beholder."

There was a time when such words would actually have stung.

"There was a time when I was growing up where you just don't want to be different. I didn't realize for so many years that when you try to blend in and be like everybody else, it kind of hinders you," he said. "A name James and I came up for me is the Cerebral Palsy Vigilante, and my mission is fighting injustices caused by cerebral palsy misconception and the biggest misconception is it's wrong to be different."

"We're all different in one way or another. When I grew up, I wanted to be normal, but normal isn't a thing. It doesn't exist," he said. "We all have something different about ourselves. If we are all different, what is normal? It's a myth."

He's had a lot of self doubt. He convinced himself at one point that 26.2 miles was unreasonable to expect, given his disability. And then he decided to be, in his words, unreasonably reasonable and try despite the doubt.

He wants you to do the same.

"I invite you to accompany me along the marathon journey. No, forget invite, I dare you," he wrote. "I am not expecting your participation to involve physically completing the marathon. Instead, I challenge you to recognize whatever test you convinced yourself 'I'm unable.' Become unreasonably reasonable and pursue it. Prove you wrong!"